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Focus on Geography Series, 2011 Census

Census subdivision of Ponoka County, MD - Alberta ¹

Map of Ponoka County, MD

Interactive version of map

Population, 2011 and 2006 censuses

Chart A description: Ponoka County, MD - Population, 2011 and 2006 censuses

Prov. rank

Nat. rank

441

In 2011, Ponoka County (Municipal district) had a population of 8,856, representing a percentage change of 2.5% from 2006. This compares to the national average growth of 5.9%.

Land area is 2,807.94 square kilometres with a population density of 3.2 persons per square kilometre. This compares to the provincial land area of 640,081.87 square kilometres with a population density of 5.7 persons per square kilometre.

In 2011, Ponoka County (Municipal district) had 3,172 private dwellings occupied by usual residents. The change in private dwellings occupied by usual residents from 2006 was 4.6%. For Canada as a whole, the number of private dwellings occupied by usual residents increased 7.1%.

Population and dwelling counts

Ponoka County (Municipal district) – Neighbouring census subdivisions

Table 1 Ponoka County (Municipal district) – Neighbouring census subdivisions, population change, 2006 to 2011
Census subdivision (CSD) name	CSD type	Population
Census subdivision (CSD) name	CSD type	2011	2006	% change
Lacombe County, Alta.	MD	10,312	10,394 A	-0.8
Ponoka, Alta.	T	6,773	6,576	3.0
Parkland Beach, Alta.	SV	124	135	-8.1
Rimbey, Alta.	T	2,378	2,252	5.6
Samson 137, Alta.	IRI	3,746	3,295	13.7
Montana 139, Alta.	IRI	653	635	2.8
Clearwater County, Alta.	MD	12,278	11,826	3.8
Camrose County, Alta.	MD	7,721	7,150 A	8.0
Wetaskiwin County No. 10, Alta.	MD	10,866	10,519 A	3.3
Ermineskin 138, Alta.	IRI	1,874	1,464	28.0

Alberta – Census subdivisions with 5,000-plus population with the highest population growth

Table 2 Alberta – Census subdivisions with 5,000-plus population with the highest population growth, population change, 2006 to 2011
Census subdivision (CSD) name	CSD type	Population
Census subdivision (CSD) name	CSD type	2011	2006	% change
Chestermere	T	14,824	9,923 A	49.4
Beaumont	T	13,284	8,961	48.2
Airdrie	CY	42,564	28,927	47.1
Leduc	CY	24,279	16,967	43.1
Okotoks	T	24,511	17,150 A	42.9

Alberta – Census subdivisions with 5,000-plus population with the lowest population growth

Table 3 Alberta – Census subdivisions with 5,000-plus population with the lowest population growth, population change, 2006 to 2011
Census subdivision (CSD) name	CSD type	Population
Census subdivision (CSD) name	CSD type	2011	2006	% change
Lac la Biche County	MD	8,402	9,123 A	-7.9
Willow Creek No. 26	MD	5,107	5,337	-4.3
Crowsnest Pass	SM	5,565	5,749	-3.2
Greenview No. 16	MD	5,299	5,464	-3.0
Lethbridge County	MD	10,061	10,254 A	-1.9

Age and sex

Ponoka County, MD – Age distribution

Chart C: Ponoka County, MD - Population by broad age groups

Chart C description: Ponoka County, MD - Population by broad age groups

Table 4 Ponoka County, MD – Age distributions by broad age groups and sex, 2011 Census
Age groups	Both sexes	Males	Females
0 to 14	18.5%	18.2%	18.8%
15 to 64	68.0%	67.7%	68.3%
65 and over	13.5%	14.1%	13.0%

In 2011, the percentage of the population aged 65 and over in Ponoka County, MD was 13.5%, compared with a national percentage of 14.8%. The percentage of the working age population (15 to 64) was 68.0% and the percentage of children aged 0 to 14 was 18.5%. In comparison, the national percentages were 68.5% for the population aged 15 to 64 and 16.7% for the population aged 0 to 14.

Ponoka County, MD – Population by broad age groups and sex

Table 5 Ponoka County, MD – Population by broad age groups, sex and population change between 2006 and 2011, 2006 to 2011 censuses
Broad age groups by sex	Population
Broad age groups by sex	2011	2006	change	% change
Both sexes
Total	8,855	8,640	215	2.5
0 to 14	1,635	1,705	-70	-4.1
15 to 64	6,020	5,940	80	1.3
65 and over	1,195	995	200	20.1
Males
Total	4,550	4,490	60	1.3
0 to 14	830	890	-60	-6.7
15 to 64	3,080	3,070	10	0.3
65 and over	640	530	110	20.8
Females
Total	4,305	4,150	155	3.7
0 to 14	810	815	-5	-0.6
15 to 64	2,940	2,870	70	2.4
65 and over	560	465	95	20.4

Ponoka County, MD – Population by five-year age groups and sex

Chart D description: Ponoka County, MD - Population by five-year age groups and sex

Table 6 Ponoka County, MD – Population by five-year age groups and sex, 2011 Census
Age groups	Both sexes	Males	Females
Total - Age groups	8,855	4,550	4,305
0 to 4 years	475	240	235
5 to 9 years	530	295	235
10 to 14 years	635	295	340
15 to 19 years	670	360	310
20 to 24 years	435	220	215
25 to 29 years	375	200	175
30 to 34 years	445	225	225
35 to 39 years	475	230	245
40 to 44 years	580	280	300
45 to 49 years	760	365	395
50 to 54 years	875	445	430
55 to 59 years	775	415	360
60 to 64 years	630	345	285
65 to 69 years	450	245	205
70 to 74 years	310	150	155
75 to 79 years	220	125	95
80 to 84 years	150	90	60
85 years and over	70	25	40
Median age	43.6	43.9	43.4

Ponoka County, MD – Median age² of the population

Chart E: Canada, Alberta and Ponoka County, MD - Median age, 2006 and 2011 censuses

Chart E description: Canada, Alberta and Ponoka County, MD - Median age, 2006 and 2011 censuses

In 2011, the median age in Ponoka County, MD was 43.6 years. In comparison, the median age of Alberta was 36.5 years.

Table 7 Canada, Alberta and Ponoka County, MD – Median age, 2006 and 2011 censuses
	Median age
	2006	2011
Canada	39.5	40.6
Alberta	36.0	36.5
Ponoka County, MD	41.2	43.6

Families and households

In 2011, the number of census families³ in Ponoka County was 2,615, which represents a change of 4.0% from 2006. This compares to a growth rate for Canada of 5.5% over the same period.

In Ponoka County, 84.1% of census families were married couples in 2011, while 9.2% were common-law-couples and 6.7% were lone-parent families.

Chart F: Ponoka County - Census families by family structure

Chart F description: Ponoka County - Census families by family structure

Ponoka County – Family structure

Table 8 Canada, Alberta, CSD of Ponoka County, MD and neighbouring census subdivisions – Distribution of census families by family structure, 2011 Census
Geographic name	Total families	Married-couple families		Common-law-couple families		Lone-parent families		% change, census families, 2006 to 2011
Geographic name	Total families	number	%	number	%	number	%	% change, census families, 2006 to 2011
Canada †	9,389,695	6,293,950	67.0	1,567,905	16.7	1,527,840	16.3	5.5
Alberta †	999,525	719,355	72.0	135,660	13.6	144,510	14.5	10.5
Ponoka County, MD	2,615	2,200	84.1	240	9.2	175	6.7	4.0
Lacombe County, MD	3,075	2,585	84.1	285	9.3	205	6.7	3.7
Ponoka, T	1,815	1,200	66.1	265	14.6	355	19.6	-0.5
Parkland Beach, SV	45	45	100.0	0	0.0	0	0.0	-10.0
Rimbey, T	660	460	69.7	105	15.9	95	14.4	3.9
Samson 137, IRI	905	160	17.7	310	34.3	435	48.1	18.3
Montana 139, IRI	145	30	20.7	55	37.9	65	44.8	3.6
Clearwater County, MD	3,735	2,955	79.1	485	13.0	285	7.6	4.6
Camrose County, MD	2,320	1,940	83.6	225	9.7	155	6.7	11.8
Wetaskiwin County No. 10, MD	3,370	2,780	82.5	355	10.5	235	7.0	3.4
Ermineskin 138, IRI	395	80	20.3	150	38.0	170	43.0	21.5

Ponoka County – Presence of children within couple families

Among couples (married and common-law) in the census subdivision of Ponoka County, 43.6% were couples with children aged 24 and under at home. In comparison, as a whole, 46.9% of couples in Canada had children aged 24 and under at home.

Presence of children within couple families
* Children aged 24 and under at home
Married couples with children *	1,000
Married couples without children *	1,200
Common-law-couples with children *	70
Common-law-couples without children *	170

Ponoka County – Marital status

Chart H description: Ponoka County - Marital status

In Ponoka County, 68.3% of the total population aged 15 and over were either married (61.6%) or living with a common-law partner (6.7%).

The remaining 31.7% were not married and not living with a common-law partner, including those who were single (never-married), separated, divorced or widowed.

Note: Percentages may not total 100 percent due to random rounding.

Table 9 Canada, Alberta, Ponoka County, MD – Population 15 years and older by marital status, 2011 Census
Marital status	Ponoka County, MD		Alberta		Canada
Marital status	number	%	number	%	number	%
Total - Population 15 years and over	7,220	100.0	2,960,470	100.0	27,869,345	100.0
Married or living with a common-law partner	4,930	68.3	1,756,860	59.3	16,084,490	57.7
Married (and not separated)	4,445	61.6	1,484,705	50.2	12,941,965	46.4
Living common-law	485	6.7	272,155	9.2	3,142,525	11.3
Not married and not living with a common-law partner	2,290	31.7	1,203,615	40.7	11,784,855	42.3
Single (never legally married)	1,535	21.3	823,935	27.8	7,816,045	28.0
Separated	120	1.7	70,855	2.4	698,245	2.5
Divorced	275	3.8	177,375	6.0	1,686,035	6.0
Widowed	360	5.0	131,440	4.4	1,584,525	5.7

Ponoka County – Types of private households

There were 3,175 private households⁴ in Ponoka County in 2011, a change of 4.6% from 2006. Of these, 33.1% of households were comprised of couples with children aged 24 and under at home, a change of -5.4% compared with five years earlier.

Table 10 Canada, Alberta, Ponoka County, MD – Distribution of households by household type, 2011 Census
Household type⁵	Ponoka County, MD		Alberta		Canada
Household type⁵	number	%	number	%	number	%
Total private households	3,175	100.0	1,390,275	100.0	13,320,615	100.0
Couple-family households with children aged 24 and under at home⁶	1,050	33.1	407,145	29.3	3,524,915	26.5
Couple-family households without children aged 24 and under at home⁷	1,330	41.9	406,380	29.2	3,935,540	29.5
Lone-parent family households⁸	150	4.7	128,330	9.2	1,375,450	10.3
One-person households	545	17.2	342,735	24.7	3,673,310	27.6
Multiple family households⁹	35	1.1	27,900	2.0	268,060	2.0
Other households¹⁰	55	1.7	77,785	5.6	543,340	4.1

Ponoka County – Structural type of dwelling

In Ponoka County, 84.7% of private households lived in single-detached houses and 0.0% lived in apartments in buildings that have five or more storeys. The rest lived in other types of dwelling structures.

Table 11 Canada, Alberta, Ponoka County, MD – Distribution of private households by structural type of dwelling, 2011 Census
Structural type of dwelling	Ponoka County, MD		Alberta		Canada
Structural type of dwelling	number	%	number	%	number	%
Total - Structural type of dwelling	3,170	100.0	1,390,275	100.0	13,320,615	100.0
Single-detached house	2,685	84.7	883,260	63.5	7,329,150	55.0
Semi-detached house	0	0.0	71,850	5.2	646,240	4.9
Row house	0	0.0	97,865	7.0	791,600	5.9
Apartment, building that has five or more storeys	0	0.0	58,205	4.2	1,234,770	9.3
Apartment, building that has fewer than five storeys	0	0.0	197,945	14.2	2,397,555	18.0
Apartment, duplex	0	0.0	33,505	2.4	704,485	5.3
Other single-attached house¹¹	5	0.2	1,060	0.1	33,310	0.3
Movable dwelling¹²	480	15.1	46,590	3.4	183,510	1.4

Language

Ponoka County, MD – Mother tongue

Chart J description: Ponoka County, MD - Mother tongue and language spoken most often at home

Note: Counts for mother tongue as well as those for language spoken most often at home include single responses only.

In Ponoka County, 90.0% of the population reported English only as mother tongue, 0.8% reported French only, and 8.6% reported a non-official language only, in 2011. In comparison, the provincial / territorial percentages were 77.0% for English only, 1.9% for French only and 19.4% for only non-official languages.

In 2011, 96.3% of the population spoke only English most often at home, 0.2% spoke only French and 2.7% spoke only a non-official language. In comparison, the provincial / territorial percentages were 85.7% for only English, 0.7% for only French and 10.5% for only a non-official language.

Table 12 Ponoka County, MD – Mother tongue and language spoken most often at home, 2011 Census
Selected languages	Mother tongue		Language spoken most often at home
Selected languages	number	%	number	%
Total	8,600	100.0	8,605	100.0
English	7,740	90.0	8,285	96.3
French	70	0.8	15	0.2
Non-official language	740	8.6	235	2.7
Multiple responses	45	0.5	65	0.8

Table 13 Ponoka County, MD – Mother-tongue retention, 2011 Census
Mother tongue	Mother-tongue retention¹³ (in percentage)
Mother tongue	Total retention; language spoken at home at least on a regular basis	Complete retention; language spoken most often at home	Partial retention; language spoken at home on a regular basis
Note: Counts for mother tongue and home language include single response of a language as well as multiple responses of a language with English and/or French.
English	99.7	99.7	0.0
French	38.9	11.1	27.8
Non-official language	65.6	36.9	28.7

Ponoka County, MD – Non-official languages

In Ponoka County, the three most common mother tongues were Dutch (3.9%), German (2.8%) and Cree, n.o.s. (0.3%), in 2011. In comparison, the most common mother tongues at the provincial / territorial level were German (2.3%), Tagalog (Pilipino, Filipino) (1.9%) and Panjabi (Punjabi) (1.5%).

Table 14 Ponoka County, MD – The most common non-official-language mother tongues, 2011 Census
Mother tongue	Number	Percentage of non-official language mother-tongue population	Percentage of total population
Note: Counts for mother tongue and home language include single response of a language as well as multiple responses of a language with English and/or French.
Dutch	335	42.7	3.9
German	245	31.2	2.8
Cree, n.o.s.	25	3.2	0.3
Frisian	20	2.5	0.2
Tagalog (Pilipino, Filipino)	20	2.5	0.2
Ukrainian	20	2.5	0.2

Ponoka County, MD – Bilingualism

Table 15 Ponoka County, MD – Rate of English-French bilingualism by mother tongue and age groups, 2011 Census
Age groups	Mother tongue
Age groups	Total	English	French	Non-official language
Note: Counts for mother tongue include single responses only. Consequently, the total excludes multiple responses.
Total	1.9	1.4	76.9	2.0
0 to 19	2.0	1.6	0.0	3.8
20 to 44	2.2	2.0	66.7	0.0
45 to 64	2.0	1.0	87.5	3.7
65 and over	0.9	0.5	50.0	3.8

Table 16 Ponoka County, MD – Knowledge of official languages, 2011 Census
Knowledge of official languages	Number	Percentage
Total	8,605	100.0
English only	8,415	97.8
French only	5	0.1
English and French	175	2.0
Neither English nor French	10	0.1

Symbols:

···: not applicable
†: excludes census data for one or more incompletely enumerated Indian reserves or Indian settlements. For further information, refer to Notes.
¶: incompletely enumerated Indian reserve or Indian settlement. For further information, refer to Notes.
A: adjusted figure due to boundary change. For further information, refer to Content considerations.
E: use with caution. For further information, refer to Cautionary note.

Footnotes

Footnote 1

Ponoka County MD (Alberta) – This census subdivision has the following data quality indicators (commonly referred to as data quality flags):

Data quality index showing a global non response rate higher than or equal to 5% but lower than 10%.

Return to footnote 1 referrer

Footnote 2

Median age: Age 'x' that divides a population in two groups of the same population size, one group being older than age 'x' and the other group being younger than age 'x'.

Return to footnote 2 referrer

Footnote 3

Census family: Refers to a married couple (with or without children), a common-law couple (with or without children) or a lone parent family.

Return to footnote 3 referrer

Footnote 4

Household, private: Refers to a person or a group of persons (other than foreign residents) who occupy a private dwelling and do not have a usual place of residence elsewhere in Canada.

Return to footnote 4 referrer

Footnote 5

Household type: Refers to the basic division of private households into family and non-family households. Family household refers to a household that contains at least one census family, that is, a married couple with or without children, or a couple living in common-law with or without children or a lone parent living with one or more children.

Return to footnote 5 referrer

Footnote 6

Couple-family households with children: Refers to couple households with at least one child aged 24 and under.

Return to footnote 6 referrer

Footnote 7

Couple-family households without children: Refers to couple households without children aged 24 and under. Includes couple households with all children aged 25 and over.

Return to footnote 7 referrer

Footnote 8

Lone-parent-family households: Refers to all lone-parent family households regardless of age of children.

Return to footnote 8 referrer

Footnote 9

Multiple-family households: Refers to a household in which two or more census families (with or without additional persons) occupy the same private dwelling.

Return to footnote 9 referrer

Footnote 10

Other households: Refers to two or more people who share a private dwelling, but who do not constitute a census family.

Return to footnote 10 referrer

Footnote 11

Other single-attached house: A single dwelling that is attached to another building and that does not fall into any of the other categories, such as a single dwelling attached to a non-residential structure (e.g., a store or a church) or occasionally to another residential structure (e.g., an apartment building).

Return to footnote 11 referrer

Footnote 12

Movable dwelling includes mobile homes and other movable dwellings such as houseboats and railroad cars.

Return to footnote 12 referrer

Footnote 13

Mother-tongue retention: Retention refers to the situation where people speak their mother tongue at home. Retention is defined as 'complete' when the mother tongue is the language spoken most often and 'partial' when it is spoken on a regular basis but not most often. The (complete or partial) retention rate refers to the proportion of the population with a given mother tongue that speaks that language at home most often or on a regular basis. The retention rate provides an indication of a group's linguistic vitality, particularly the importance of transmitting languages between generations.

Return to footnote 13 referrer

Source:

Statistics Canada. 2012. Focus on Geography Series, 2011 Census. Statistics Canada Catalogue no. 98-310-XWE2011004. Ottawa, Ontario. Analytical products, 2011 Census. Last updated October 24, 2012.

Related data:

2011 Census Topic-based tabulations – Census subdivision of Ponoka County, Municipal district - Alberta
2011 Census Highlight tables – Census subdivision of Ponoka County, Municipal district - Alberta
2011 Census Data Navigator – Census subdivision of Ponoka County, Municipal district - Alberta
2011 NHS Focus on Geography Series – Census subdivision of Ponoka County, Municipal district - Alberta

Date modified:: 2019-03-27

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Focus on Geography Series, 2011 Census